Korg Forums

Folks,
I've had an EMX forever and I love the workflow but felt like the sounds were thin compared to my other gear, the Virus and the Moog. So I dabbled with other sequencer/synth combinations and in all cases found the sequencer lacking for live composing and the synths only a little better. So my long range hail-mary is to pair the synths I have with the Cirklon or go modular. But these are expensive and bulky solutions for playing out so before I do, I want to try making it work with an ESX.

So I'm imagining a workflow that composes and edits on my traditional setup with the synths chained from my EMX, all out to a mixer, then take the headphone jack from the mixer into the ESX input. When I get something I like, record it dry and isolated either as a single sample or a part to the ESX. Then play that part on the ESX and move on to composing the next piece on the EMX. When it's all done, focus on the ESX and build in tweaks, effects and sequences.

After I build up a sample library, I imagine I'll transition to composing on the ESX.

Does this seem rational or unnecessarily cumbersome? How do you work with your ESX?

Thanks,
CCQ

I worked a bit like that. Well, sort of. I ran my EMX and other stuff through two Kaoss Pad's and sampled the results into the ESX. It was very fun and all, but I realised I needed more control over the individual elements when it came to eq'ing and panning etc. So now I'm sampling my stuff into the computer before running seperate parts through effects and Kaoss Pads, before entering the computer again. Sadly this leaves the ESX out of the loop.

I still haven't quite settled on what to do, but I think the ESX will be used primarily for sampling stuff from my iPad.

I think you should definitely thicken up the mix with outboard gear. The emx is a mean sequencer but as you say, thin sounding on its own.
I used to use one & the workflow is great but lacks fullness of sound. I now use an esx as my master sequencer running midi to other outboard gear but i miss the emx & would like to get another one to sequence even more synthesizers.
A great tool & i recommend hanging on to it.....Unless you want to sell it to me ...haha, just kidding.

I felt like the stock on ESX's was going up so I just went and got a second one. So to recap, 2xESX, 1xEMX, 1xRM1X, 1xEMU CS, and thinking real hard about a Cirklon.

Thanks for the comments, team. I had hoped I would be able to run a sequence form the ESX sequencer and auto-sample it to another track but I realize now that's crazy talk. So I use the EMX as a controller and record the result to the ESX. The studio's starting to look like a Korg showroom.